It’s a poten­tial dis­as­ter for the peo­ple of the Bahamas who just want to live and work.

NAS­SAU, Bahamas — Miss­ing two grand open­ing dead­lines isn’t some­thing that any large ven­ture hopes to expe­ri­ence, but that’s exactly what has hap­pened to Baha Mar.

Touted as China’s largest com­mer­cial real estate project in the West­ern Hemi­sphere, Baha Mar, a $3.5 bil­lion Bahamian resort com­plex, has floun­dered this year, caus­ing the most seri­ous eco­nomic dam­age the small island coun­try has seen since the global finan­cial cri­sis. The resort is pre­dicted to con­tribute 12 per­cent to the country’s gross domes­tic prod­uct, but its fail­ure to mate­ri­al­ize has at least in part led Stan­dard & Poor’s to down­grade the country’s sov­er­eign credit rating

“It’s vital, because the major­ity of the peo­ple who are set to work for this great project — if they can­not work here, I’m not too sure they’re going to get jobs else­where,” said Justin Lock­hart, an engi­neer who was hired to work at Baha Mar but is spend­ing more time these days play­ing soli­taire. “For the aver­age bus­boy, house­keeper, house­man, wait­ress, you know they’re not going to get this oppor­tu­nity again. So obvi­ously, it has to happen.”